Under a Lucky Star
by izzyred
Summary: Drawn by a mysterious force, Riku's friend Sora takes on astrology as something of a hobby and opens up a world he didn't expect. Riku doggedly follows along for the sake of love, and soon finds his healthy skepticism straining against the evidence as things grow stranger and stranger around him. A story about love, divination, high school, and what the stars can tell us.
1. Temptation

**Warnings and Disclaimers:** Zodiac stuff. Little sprinkles of magic without any full-on commitment to the occult. A little bit of ghosty fun, augury, and completely useless and ridiculous "powers." Sex, drugs, and copious cursing. A great deal of bullshitting and lack of accuracy. Nonsense and self-indulgent drivel as per usual. I own none of the characters.

**Title:** Temptation by New order

**Izzy would like you to note:** I looked into a lot of the stuff I write about in this story pretty extensively, but I'm going to play around with it a lot and change things. Like, for instance, I did actually assign birthdates/places/times to the main characters and then got their natal charts and related information, but the whole premise here will be things growing steadily more chaotic, and I don't really care about being 100% accurate about it because it's supposed to be fun. Along the same lines, I looked up the movement of the planets in relation to the different houses and signs for all of the years covered in this story, but then I realized it's really not important to be accurate on that either. Alright, finally, I want to note that this one will be almost entirely lighthearted. If you're looking for angst, this one isn't going to do it for you. Hope you enjoy!

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><p><strong>Temptation<strong>

Summertime, 1993. Just past noon.

Riku, for some reason, found himself sitting in a loose circle of his friends in Sora's basement. His ass hurt. It was hot as balls. His throat felt like it'd been penetrated for hours on end by the devil's cock. And the floor was concrete, which wasn't exactly the acme of comfort. He sighed and dreamt of Leon's pool party, something he'd had no desire to attend up until the point he became stuck in his brunet friend's basement.

He took a moment to look around at the other attendees and grimaced pointedly. Selphie was never a companion he'd suffer by choice, yet there she was, taking up an unreasonable amount of space and sighing dramatically.

"What is taking that brat so long?" said Selphie, the high-pitched whine of her voice grating on every single nerve in Riku's body.

He grimaced again.

"I'm sure he's digging through the heaps of clothes on his floor as we speak," Kairi replied, fanning herself. "It'll take him at least a year to find anything he's looking for in that room."

Tidus stood up with a groan. "I'm leaving then."

Zexion and Demyx nodded and started to join him when a loud noise echoed through the basement, the clatter of footsteps quickly following

"Hold on!"

The cry came from the stairs, upon which Sora now stood, triumphantly brandishing a book Riku had become all too familiar with. 'Here we go,' he thought, shaking his head. 'Now everyone is going to find out what a lovesick little stooge I really am for going along with this madness.'

Despite his weary thoughts, Riku smiled at his friend and watched as he came forward to join the circle, flopping next to him with a huff. He smelled just as expected: sweat and melting ice cream and budding maturity. It was an awful temptation for Riku, so he turned his gaze away in shame, trying to remain inconspicuous. It quickly became clear that he'd failed at that endeavor, however, when he made full eye contact with Kairi who was sporting a knowing grin. She waggled her eyebrows at him and made a rude gesture with her hands which (fortunately) went unnoticed by Sora. With a smirk, Riku mouthed curses back at her and started to make threatening hand motions, but was quickly interrupted by a loud throat clearing.

"Alright," Sora called, "birthdays everyone!" He slammed the book down and pressing his finger against a page that read 'Aries' in large, flowing letters at the top, a beaming smile on his face.

Everyone aside from Riku stared at him for a moment, then took the time to glance down at the book he'd brought. They hadn't been made aware of the purpose of this little powwow, so it probably came as some shock that they were going to be playing astrologer in the middle of a fucking heatwave. They all looked like they wanted to complain, or stand up and leave, but to Riku's surprise, they played along. He glanced over at Sora and his mouth quirked. 'He has that effect on people, I guess.'

"Ok, so to determine your moon, rising, and midheaven signs I need detailed information about birthplaces, birth times, and birthdates. If you know all of that, that is."

Sora grinned and turned to him as Riku shook his head, his eyes wide with excitement. Riku was happy that he was enjoying himself and all, but he couldn't help wondering if they should be doing this. He knew what it might cost their friends. And as innocuous as it seemed, there would be blame passed around when things got crazy. He didn't want Sora to have to go through that.

But in spite of Riku's misgivings, and with no clue about what they were (possibly) getting themselves into, everyone started giving Sora their information. Kairi was the only one who knew everything down to the time of birth, so Sora did her reading first.

"Kairi your sun sign iiiis… Aquarius. Makes sense."

"That'd better be a good fucking thing, Sora," she said playfully, shoving him with her foot.

He laughed and continued. "Moon in Capricorn, Scorpio ascendant and Leo MC. Your signs are all over the place."

She stared at him, uncomprehending, then finally asked, "Alright, so what does any of that have to do with anything?" She crossed her arms and waited.

"I was just about to tell you that." With a twinkle in his eyes, he began reading about the meaning of each of the signs, flipping through the book with a practiced familiarity.

Riku made a face at the whole thing, his concern growing as he thought about the things that had been happening to them — the crazy things he couldn't explain — since the first time they'd opened that book… He shuddered and glanced at Kairi, wondering what her horoscope would be when Sora was done.

"I see…" the brunet murmured, startling Riku from his reverie. "Venus is in Capricorn until next month, which is a good thing for you since that aligns with your birth chart…"

Suddenly, everyone in the circle was riveted. Even Tidus who would normally be ready to flee merely at the mention of anything that involved a book, was rapt with attention. They began clamoring for their own readings as Kairi's went on, wrestling over who got to use the phone to call their parents for their birth certificates.

'They're getting a little bit too worked up,' Riku thought, glancing at Sora with a frown. The brunet responded with a playful wink.

"I think they're getting into it," he chuckled, nudging Riku. "Maybe we should bring out the new book you got today."

Riku gulped at the thought. He still couldn't be completely sure it was true, but he felt like opening the hulking old astrology book in front of Sora had been the beginning of all the strange events around them. He didn't even want to imagine what opening a book called _Librum Dæmoniorum _would unleash on them. On the world.

Still, he couldn't deny how curious he was, or how strongly the book called out to him. And he knew his fears wouldn't stop him if he really wanted to pop the lock on that whole new treasure chest of pseudoscientific knowledge.

Instead of delving into that in front of their friends, he ignored it for the time being and helped Sora draw out out everyone's horoscopes and natal charts. It took them hours, during which everyone else demanded constant updates on what Sora was finding in the book. He patiently told them everything they wanted to know, which surprised everyone except Riku. They all knew that, normally, the brunet would become overwhelmed under that kind of pressure and give up. But, as Riku had come to understand over the past two weeks, Sora had a strange affinity for astrology, and a strange harmony with the book in front of him. It made him oddly calm... almost sage-like. It freaked Riku out even more than the fact that all of the horoscopes Sora divined were true. And more than the strangely specific events the two of them had experienced over the course of two weeks.

He thought back on the night everything had started and wondered if the same things he'd experienced were in store for his friends.

* * *

><p>Dial everything back to May.<p>

Sora and Riku were lazing around after a day of goofing off. It was the start of summer vacation and they had been up to their usual activities: skateboarding in empty car parks and dry lake beds, joyriding out on rural desert roads, cramming cheap tacos in their mouths until they were full to bursting, etc. It wasn't exactly inspired, or even all that fun, but there were only so many things to do in their tiny, beat-down town.

After a long day of this nothingness, they lay winding down on Sora's bed, yammering about bullshit as the minutes ticked by. It was horribly uneventful. And it was absolute torture for Riku who couldn't stand how close the other boy was, yet how lacking in any romantic connotations that closeness was.

During one of the lulls in conversation that often happened when Riku became too wrapped up in his thoughts, Sora sat up slightly and gave the other boy a serious look, pointing at him with narrowed eyes.

"Riku, do you believe in astrology?" he asked.

The silver-haired boy had no response to that, at first. The question was completely out of place, and he was tired and irritable from spending all day thinking self-absorbed, lovelorn thoughts. After a small pause, he shrugged, unable to give a proper response with all of the things still swirling around in his brain.

Sora pouted, but quickly recovered and flipped around, sitting up all the way and digging around at the edge of his bed. An unreasonable amount of time passed as he dug through the debris that constantly littered his floor before the brunet turned to him and, with an unwarranted twinkle in his eyes, produced an impressively unimpressive book the size of his own torso.

"Well, anyways, I found this the other day," he said proudly, sliding his hand over the cover. "It looks… interesting."

Riku looked from the book to Sora to the book again, sighing and shaking his head. He read the cover: _Astrologia_

"Don't tell me you believe in this shit because of that book, Sora?"

"Pfft, no," the brunet chuckled, waving one hand in the air. "That's not the point."

"Well what is the point then?"

Sora shrugged. "I dunno. We're not doing anything else anyways. I'm bored."

"And this will alleviate your boredom how? You can't read for more than 10 seconds without getting frustrated and throwing a fit."

Sora kicked him lightly and set the book in his lap with a petulant pout.

"Come on, what does it matter? If I open it and it's boring I'll chuck it. But I might just discover the secrets to the universe inside of this big ol' hunk of paper."

The brunet wiggled his fingers like a corny magician, moving his hands towards Riku's face. The silveret grabbed them before he got his eye poked out and sat up next to his friend, sighing and flipping the hair out of his eyes.

"Alright, let's see what you got here," he grumbled, flicking open the cover with one finger.

And then… they both became entranced. It was almost like all of their skepticism and derision were forcefully suspended by an unknown power. They sat for hours determining their personality traits and inner workings, as though they'd never known themselves or each other before. In their fervor and mesmerization, everything felt so real and frighteningly accurate they started to wonder about using the book to determine their horoscopes. After all, if so much about who they were could be determined by the pages of _Astrologia_, the future couldn't be that far out of reach. It seemed reasonable at the time.

Later, after they'd thoroughly mapped out the events of the days, then weeks, then months ahead, they sat down and closed the book and wondered what the hell had happened.

Sora stared at Riku, who in turn sat gaping back, a slight frown forming on his lips.

"Well that was weird," the brunet murmured, scratching the side of his head. "I feel like I've lost some hours."

"Yeah that's- me too. What the hell? What a stupid waste of an evening." Riku sighed and stood up, stretching back. He felt dizzy for a moment as he arched and had to catch himself on Sora's bed. He and the brunet stared at each other again, a tremor of fear and confusion running between them.

"It's- it must be the heat," Riku reasoned, his head swimming. He touched his forehead and squinted, trying not to collapse. Sora reached towards him in concern but he was already stumbling away, looking around at the dozens of pages of notebook paper they'd scribbled on over the past four hours. He couldn't remember anything they'd written. None of it was recognizable, and he could barely see what was happening around him anyways. His eyes were getting blurry.

Sora seemed to be reacting in much the same manner, though he hadn't stood yet and simply sat closing and opening his eyes and squeezing his head.

Then, everything went completely blank.

They woke up on the floor, still surrounded by the pages that seemed to chronicle their lives and their inner selves so accurately. And the pages with their futures, too, those were crushed under cheek. Riku had to peel the top page off and give it another glance just to get his eyes to focus.

"It says that I'm going to receive bad news today," he grumbled, glancing over at Sora, who was reading a page they'd written about Leo ascendant.

"I can't remember doing this," the brunet replied, shaking his head and dropping the page. "I mean, I remember us doing it, but I don't remember the words. I don't remember what the book said. I don't remember any of this shit."

Riku grunted in concurrence, dropping his page as well and glancing over at the one they'd written on Sora.

"Yours says you should spend all day inside since an accident is waiting for you outside," he said, scanning just the first line. "This is just ridiculous."

Sora nodded and stood up with a sigh, shaking his limbs around to get the blood flowing. "You must be right about the heat getting to us," he laughed. But Riku heard the tremble in his voice. He was feeling just as unsettled as the silver-haired boy.

But there was no way he could bring Sora down; he didn't want to discourage or upset the brunet, so he had to pretend everything was okay.

"Yeah, I think we just need some proper rest and water or something," he said gently, joining his friend and patting his shoulder. "I'm heading home. I'm sure my mom's not too happy about me staying at yours without asking."

Sora nodded in his periphery. Riku couldn't bring himself to turn and look at his expression as he left.

* * *

><p>Fast forward a few days.<p>

Riku was utterly disturbed. He'd gone home from Sora's three days before with only a small twinge of doubt in his chest. Nothing too drastic. But, in the span of time since, he'd become a paranoid mess. It had started with the news of his grandmother's death. That's what he'd come home to after the horoscope fiasco. He had a brief flash of what he'd written on that paper when his mother told him.

"You will receive bad news."

He shook it off at first, chalking it up to coincidence.

Then he received another bit of bad news: Sora had been rushed to the hospital with a head injury. He had a concussion from being hit by a baseball as he was riding his bike past the park. That seemed a little bit more freaky to Riku, so he visited his friend during his brief hospital stay to figure out what the fuck was going on.

Sora, though mostly recovered, was still somewhat concussion-y, and mostly garbled and laughed at silly things when talking to Riku. However, he did have one salient thing to say. He grabbed Riku's wrist as he was leaving and said, "I read that tomorrow I'm going to receive some money. And you're going to struggle with important decisions. Just keep that in mind."

Riku nodded and gulped, not sure how to feel. He tried to calm himself with the help of the more analytical parts of his brain, which told him that these things could not possibly be accurate. That astrology was just a budding craze brought back after lying dormant for many centuries. That belief in new age bullshit was only so widespread because people were gullible and willing to trust the primitive parts of their brain. 'Yeah, this is all just nonsense,' he reasoned, slightly reassured. 'This was just a fluke. We're both messed up in the head from this heatwave, I'm sure.'

The next day however, his reassurance seemed to mean nothing. He heard that Sora had received an apology check from the people at the park. And then he was faced with the decision of whether or not he wanted to go to his grandmother's funeral. A difficult choice to make because he knew there would be people there he couldn't see without dredging up painful memories. He didn't like to think about what they'd done to him, let alone look them in the face, so he ended up telling his mother he needed to stay home. But what irked him more than the resurfacing of his past family trauma was the accuracy of his fucking horoscope.

"This is shit," he later told Sora, winding the cord of his phone around one finger nervously. "This is genuinely shit. What is happening here? Did we bring this on or did we figure out that it was going to happen using that book? I'm scared here, Sora."

"Yeah me too," the brunet said around a mouthful of chips. "I mean, looking at all this shit we wrote, if it comes true we're a little bit fucked."

"Why?" Riku sat up in his bed, heart pounding out of his chest. "What else does it say?"

"Well, most of it is innocuous, at least," Sora responded slowly. "It just seems like a lot of weird, impossible things honestly. Like, the first two days were tame as hell compared to this, and I think we can both agree that getting crowned by a baseball while on a moving bike is pretty damn weird."

Riku sighed and rubbed his neck, thinking about that for a moment.

"Let's just erase it," he said. "Then they won't come true, I bet. Weird, impossible shit has never happened to us before so I posit that we caused it to happen by writing it down, or by sussing it out at all. So, getting rid of the source should make it all go away, right?"

"Mmmm, I dunno, Riku. I think it might be too late for that."

"Why do you say that?"

"I just think we opened the floodgates and there's no going back," Sora murmured, a crumpling sound coming from his end. "I don't know how I know that, but I'm pretty damn certain man. It's like something in the back of my head is literally buzzing and I'm getting these feelings. I feel like I know what all of this is about. Like I know that there's nothing we can do to stop what's coming."

"Great, so we opened Pandora's box," Riku sighed, knocking the phone receiver against his forehead in frustration. "What a great way to start the break."

Sora laughed. Riku could hear him turning the pages of a book and got the feeling he knew exactly what book it was.

"Sora are you looking at that-"

"This thing is pretty interesting man," the brunet interrupted. "I mean, I get why I was so drawn to it now. It was really hard reading it the first time, but ever since then I feel really good when I'm reading it. Really clear."

Riku just gaped at the wall, fish-mouthing into the open space in front of him.

"How can you possibly reopen that thing after what's been happening to us!? What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong with me, Riku. If anything, I'm better than I've ever been before. I feel so calm. And focused. This book is better than Ritalin."

"I'm hanging up."

"Riku-"

"I'm hanging up, Sora."

He dropped his phone with finality and rolled over on his bed, unable to shake the creeping feeling in his spine.

And over the next few weeks leading up to the astrological circle jerk in Sora's basement, all manner of freaky shit happened.

Sora went downstairs one morning to find all of his family's shoes on the dining room table, lined up from oldest to youngest.

Riku saw all of the pictures on the wall alongside his staircase drop one-by-one, following his pace as he descended hurriedly.

The two of them, while conducting research in _Astrologia_ about what was happening, experienced a gust of wind that blew Riku's window open and flipped them to a page labeled "Your Sign and Death," (after which they decided to have an extended sleepover at Riku's).

Then it was just curiouser and curiouser each day. Swarms of bees that suddenly dropped dead all together, sounds that only they heard like drums beating at night, small meteors falling to earth all around the house but causing no damage, and so on. It became so commonplace for the not-so-commonplace to occur around them, in fact, that they were almost inured to it. Riku was becoming cynical and apathetic, petulantly finding a reason for everything, even when no logical explanation was easily at hand. And Sora just ignored it, refusing to speak of the things happening even when they were happening right in front of him.

Riku stopped trying to bring it up, watching instead as his friend became more and more absorbed in _Astrologia_, and in divining the future from it. He was scary-accurate, and even though Riku could use and understand the book just fine, it never worked the same way for him as it did for Sora. On top of that, his zenned out attitude had become more persistent. Even when he wasn't using the book, he was much more sage-like and calm than Riku had ever seen him in the 17 years they'd known each other. Not to say that he was suddenly the master of tranquility — he was still Sora after all. He just seemed to have a lot more control of himself. And there had always been something very unbridled about Sora in the past, but that was fading a bit with each day.

After awhile, they both decided that weird was the new normal and Sora went back home, adjusting to his role as the somewhat psychic wonder. And while weird shit continued to happen right up until the day Sora convened his friends in his basement, it no longer seemed to matter. Neither of them had been hurt since Sora's brush with the baseball after all, so it was almost like living a completely normal life.

That's how Riku felt, anyways. He wasn't sure about Sora, but it looked like he felt the same to him as the brunet finished up Zexion's horoscope. Riku scooted away from the circle after passing out the horoscopes that had been dictated to him and watched his friends scanning the pages hungrily. He wondered if they were being taken by the same strange fervor he and Sora had experienced the night they'd opened the book. He would only know after Sora closed the thing again since that's when they'd been hit by the side-effects. He waited for the brunet to end it, but he never did. He was still poring over it, his eyes locked on the words with an almost fanatic enthusiasm.

That was concerning. He crawled forward again and placed his hand gently on the pages, trying to get Sora to look at him. The brunet did lift his head, but only to frown at him, eyes slightly unfocused.

"I think you should close it now," he murmured, reaching for the front cover. "Draw yourself back."

They stared at each other for a moment longer. Riku was unsure if any of his words had reached the other boy, but there was something like understanding creeping into his features. He thought maybe it would be safe enough to make the move himself. He wanted to see what would happen to everyone else anyways, even if it made him feel a bit guilty. 'Well they seem like willing guinea pigs,' he justified to himself, slamming _Astrologia _closed and glancing around.

The reaction he got was even more than he'd expected.

It started with Kairi, who dropped her paper with a dazed look, her body slumping in its position on the floor. Her arms suddenly hung limp at her sides, head lolling to one shoulder as her eyes fluttered closed. Soon, everyone else was in much the same predicament, their bodies half-way suspended, yet without a doubt unconscious.

Sora and Riku looked at each other, and then the rest of them, concern etched onto each of their faces.

"That's not good," Sora breathed, still sitting cross-legged on the floor. He looked up at Riku and pressed his lips together.

Riku sighed and sat down next to him.

"Nope," he said, "that's not good at all."

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> I really don't believe in anything in this story even remotely but it's really fun to write about. I had a friend who was really into astrology before and it seemed like something that would make a good story topic. I'm going to keep this going in a sort of wild way. I haven't made any plans, to be honest, I just know the general idea, so let's see how I do. Bye!


	2. I Can't Help Myself

**Warnings and Disclaimers:** Zodiac stuff. Little sprinkles of magic without any full-on commitment to the occult. A little bit of ghosty fun, augury, and completely useless and ridiculous "powers." Sex, drugs, and copious cursing. A great deal of bullshitting and lack of accuracy. Nonsense and self-indulgent drivel as per usual. I own none of the characters.

**Title:** I Can't Help Myself by The Four Tops

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><p><strong>I Can't Help Myself<strong>

The story of how Sora had come across _Astrologia_ was a fairly boring one overall, but it warranted telling if only because this small series of events became the catalyst for so much of what was to follow.

He'd gone into town on his own on the last day of school, miffed that his friends hadn't waited for him until after his meeting with the principal. It didn't help that he'd been told he wouldn't be able to conduct summer practices for the swim team on campus since their coach would be away until the following term. Never one to take a bad mood lying down, he decided to find a distraction at the frozen custard stand and take his chances on some summer blockbuster. He knew the latter would likely be a mistake. Regardless, he skidded up to the front door of Colonel Custard — a name meant to be a play on Colonel Mustard, but which unfortunately evoked images of Colonel Custer instead — and ordered a deluxe sundae inside. That did wonders for his mood, so, feeling sufficiently assuaged, he remounted his bike with all of the intentions in the world of riding home and calling Riku.

That is clearly not what happened.

As soon as he was back on the sidewalk in front of Colonel Custard, he was overwhelmed by what he could only describe as a "terrible urge" to go towards one of the new places that had been opened in the same row of shops. Rather than fighting it, he went along like a puppy on a leash, finding a place marked only by a symbol and with pitch black windows. And since the terrible feeling, nameless shop, and completely blacked out windows were clearly not ominous enough, Sora stepped inside without a second thought, eyes bouncing over everything inside with unbridled curiosity.

"Hello, welcome."

The greeting came from a decidedly average voice, whose owner emerged from behind a curtain of beads leading into a room that seemed to have nothing inside but blue light. Literally, it looked like a wall of pure light, with only more light beyond. And a sourceless, contained light, at that. Despite this and the wholly creepy nature of the entire store, the owner was also decidedly average, with shaggy brown hair that hung in his eyes, an impressive, close-shorn beard-mustache combo, and a friendly smile. He looked out of place amongst all of the shadows; everything aside from him was cast completely in the dark with purple lights shining away towards the ceiling rather than at the contents of the shelves. It made it appear as though the place itself were simply a shadow, and if you touched the walls, perhaps it would all wisp away in your fingers.

But Sora felt comfortable in spite of all of this. He wasn't even worried about what was on the shelves aside from one thing, and it stuck out in his periphery before he could take much time to squint at everything else. He went towards it with unnatural tenacity as the shop owner looked on and smiled. What he found in the shadows was an enormous, leather-bound book, its cover worn with time. The word _Astrologia_ was imprinted on the front in pretty cursive letters, shining bright in Sora's eyes though he could not explain why. The dim lighting certainly wasn't illuminating anything.

He didn't have the presence of mind to consider it much further, so he brought the book to the counter without a second glance and slid it towards the owner, smiling back at the man with inexplicable reverence.

"I will take this, please," he said, stroking the cover.

The man nodded and made no reply, pulling the book away to slide it inside a paper bag under the counter. The paper bag only had that same strange symbol from outside the shop on it, but that concerned neither Sora, nor the owner it seemed. He handed the parcel back to Sora and bade him go home, and that was it. There was no payment exchanged, no further interaction, and no explanation. It was just done.

Sora had told Riku this the day before inviting everyone over to his house, and he wondered about that store and its mysterious owner and/or manager. Or whatever that person or entity or apparition was.

"I don't understand why no one else has said anything about this place," Riku said, shuffling through the following day's horoscope disinterestedly. 'Raining minuscule tree frogs, don't step on them. Awesome.' He tossed the papers in his hands behind him, flopping onto his side on the floor. Sora's record player was spinning _Nevermind_, and it was freaking him out. He kept hearing things that stuck out just enough to make him feel like there was some relation to the weirdness that was unfolding around them.

'I don't remember these lyrics,' he thought, frowning at the record player and looking up at Sora. The brunet was absorbed in reading the horoscopes he'd just written, but seemed to take note of the strange things coming out of the record player too. He stood up to flip it to B-side but nothing changed, it continued to play the correct songs, just with altered lyrics. They were still in Kurt Cobain's voice, they were still right on key, but they were definitely not correct. Sora and Riku had sung themselves hoarse to the record enough times to know that.

Feeling rattled, Riku took the needle off and switched to a random record lying nearby, which just so happened to be Marvin Gaye's _What's Going On_. He didn't know enough of the lyrics to tell if they were as messed up as _Nevermind_, but he could tell by Sora's expression that this one wasn't working quite right either.

He decided to settle on silence as background noise and joined the brunet on his bed.

"So what do we do here?" he asked (not for the first time). "Are we just going to let this go without investigation?"

Sora shook his head, dropping his papers on top of _Astrologia_. "I think you should go into the shop," he said, his expression entirely serious. Riku wasn't sure if he'd hit his head.

"Are you kidding me, here? Go into the shop that sold- no, _gave_ this book to you?" He gestured at _Astrologia_. "This book which made us both faint, has pumped you full of zen juice, and has basically caused you to foretell a bunch of impossible shit that is coming true with superlative accuracy. Oh, and to top it all off, it's a store full of shadows with no name and magical lights coming from nowhere. Yeah, that seems like a safe place to go."

"Oh yeah, I wonder if those were portals or something," Sora said, touching his chin.

"I'm trying to have a conversation here, Sora!"

"Look, I know, okay. I get why you would be hesitant."

Riku frowned. He was feeling a little bit more than just "hesitant."

"But look at it this way: I'm totally fine. We're both safe and sound and we've done no harm to anyone else. I mean, yeah things are a little weirder for us now, but we haven't died or anything. And weren't you the one who said we should investigate just a moment ago?"

The silver-haired boy gave a small nod after a moment, not sure if he was on board with all of Sora's points. Still, he couldn't help but feel curious about what might be inside that store for him if, in fact, anything was there for him at all. It seemed like it had drawn Sora in based on the fact that _Astrologia_ was waiting there for him and then presented the book to him as though that was the only thing he should (or _could_) have in the store.

He sighed and gave in despite his misgivings, deciding with Sora that they'd both venture to Colonel Custard on the following day to see if Riku could find anything out about Symbol (as they'd taken to calling the mysterious shop).

And at 8 in the morning, they did just that, popping in for some custard at a time when almost no one ever did. It raised a question: why was a frozen custard store open at 8 in the morning? It didn't seem to concern anyone. 'Maybe this town was already a gateway for the mundanely weird and that's why all of these things are happening,' Riku thought, half-laughing at his own internal dialogue. Life was getting pretty ridiculous.

But almost anything was on the table when you'd seen a flock of birds poop the word "DREAD" onto the hood of your mom's 2008 Honda Accord.

Dismissing the ramblings of his very nearly unhinged mind, Riku refocused on the task at hand, ordering two scoops with no intention of actually eating them. He was on a mission. A mission he'd become so concerned with, in fact, that he hadn't even noticed that he knew the guy working the counter at Colonel Custard that morning.

"Is he alright?" Zexion asked, gesturing at Riku with the scoop in his hand. "He looks like a malfunctioning robot."

Sora looked up at his silvery friend. "Or a hunting dog."

"Or a hunting dog," Zexion agreed.

"What is it boy? What is it? What do you see?"

Riku pressed his lips together, narrowing his eyes at Sora and his patronizing tone. "You do realize we're here for a reason, right?"

"Yeah, okay captain serious."

"I wonder how you're not more well-known for your wit," Riku said, rolling his eyes.

Zexion snickered and handed them their cups, following them to their table since no one else was around and no one else was likely to be ridiculous or quirky enough to eat custard for breakfast.

"So what's this mysterious reason Riku's all geared up for?" he asked.

"We're trying to figure out what's up with that new place a few stores down," Sora said, spooning custard into his mouth with alarming speed.

Riku stared at him in horror for a second, then slowly looked to Zexion, who was making more of an expression than usual at Sora's gluttony. He turned his raised eyebrow towards Riku and shrugged.

"Why are you looking into that place?" the slate-haired boy asked, looking bored as he leaned against one of the nearby tables. "It's just some old lady store full of knick-knacks from what I hear. My mom goes there to buy ceramic figures."

Riku and Sora exchanged a look before turning back to Zexion, not sure if they could risk sounding as completely insane as they might if they told the guy about what had been going on.

Instead of revealing all as Sora was wont to do, Riku quickly covered with some lie about the store owner being an ex-con selling drugs in salt and pepper shakers to buyers in-the-know.

"I don't see how it's your business to investigate something that dangerous, but whatever alleviates your summer tedium, I suppose."

With that, Sora and Riku were left alone to quietly discuss the store more in depth, Zexion's curiosity and interest in interacting completely vanquished and replaced with his usual aloof detachment.

"I'm not feeling anything yet," Riku murmured, glancing towards the wall that Colonel Custard shared with the two shops before Symbol. "I mean, I wonder if it will just be the old lady knick-knack store for me."

"Maybe," Sora replied, swirling his spoon around in an empty cup. "But I didn't feel anything until I left here either, so we'll just have to wait until you step outside."

Riku stood and started to walk out, wondering if it mattered that they were together. Sora had been alone after all.

"Hey wait!" Sora called, interrupting his thoughts. He raised Riku's still-full cup of custard with pleading eyes. "Can I eat this?"

"Yeah go for it."

He left his brunet friend inside Colonel Custard and ventured out into the scorching weather alone, ready to investigate. It was only 8:20, but heat was already rising from the pavement, wavering in the sunlight. Riku squinted and walked further away from the door he'd just exited, wondering when/if the feeling would hit him.

And then he wondered no more. It crept up on him in a great wave of longing, filling his body with purpose and potent desire. He was slightly horrified, but also a little bit elated. He wanted to understand what was happening to Sora, and maybe some part of him liked the idea of being special too. Anyways, he was just relieved that their trip hadn't been for naught as it had been a hot and uncomfortable one made no better by the tiny raining frogs they'd encountered just at the edge of the shopping center.

Riku ignored their croaking and followed the feeling snaking its way through him to Symbol, noting that it looked exactly as Sora had said. This was also encouraging and frightening, but he continued forward without thinking much about it, even more focused than before. He could feel whatever was in store for him calling out so strongly it almost hurt. It was like a chain yanking at his heart, pulling him inside of the eerie place and to his destiny. Or whatever.

Unlike in Sora's experience, no one emerged once Riku was inside, but this was perhaps because of how quickly he found what was calling to him. Just as it was for Sora, it was a book, though much smaller and newer-looking than _Astrologia_.

The black leather cover was almost impossibly dark, much like the shadowed shelves around him. It was one of the softest things he'd ever touched, perhaps because it was well-taken care of, or perhaps because it was made from something unearthly. Either way, it was beautiful and enchanting to Riku, as was the title: _Librum Dæmoniorum. _It looked as though the letters had been etched by liquid silver, still shining and just barely raised off of the leather. He traced his fingers across it and breathed out slowly between his lips, not sure what to do with himself. He felt the maddening urge to open it and pore over the pages, but he wasn't sure what might happen if he did.

"Would you like to have that, sir?"

Riku snapped his gaze towards the voice now addressing him, its owner appearing from the door of blue light just as Sora had said. The way he emerged from within definitely made it look like a portal, but Riku had never seen a portal before and really couldn't speak on the issue. He noted that the door adjacent to the possible portal looked very much the same, though with pink light rather than blue inside. He wondered if that was something different from Sora's experience, or if the brunet had simply forgotten to mention it. In any case, everything else was the same, so far. The interior, the purple lights, the blackened windows, and even the owner, who was now smiling and watching Riku from behind his bangs.

Warring with his extreme feelings towards the buttery soft book in his hands, the silver-haired boy moved closer to the counter, hoping he could ask some questions of the owner.

"I… would like to have this," he choked out, shocked, at first, that his questions would not come out. Then he wondered why anything surprised him anymore, especially after everything in the store had been true to his friend's account.

With some effort, Riku kept himself from reaching the front — though his feet seemed desperate to get him there — and started to grasp for some questions.

He found it almost impossible to keep his thoughts straight as he looked at the man behind the counter, his mind zipping from one topic to another then back to the book in his hands. Always, his focus returned to that book, and he knew, somewhere inside, that he was stroking it pretty fervently. Which was a bit weird.

"What is this place?" he managed finally, straining at the ringing in his ears.

The shop owner seemed to appraise him with a bit more curiosity at that, his head quirking to one side. He dropped the smile.

"It's a place for people like you."

Riku tried to ask what he meant, but was cut off by the man's raised hand.

"I can't give you any answers," he said, though his voice was surprisingly kind. "I can tell you only that my name is Jeff, and I'm here for the same reason as you: this is a place for me. And this is the place I am drawn to when I'm needed."

Before he could open his mouth again, Riku was compelled forward at the behest of his legs and, undoubtedly, the book in his hands. He put it on the counter without a word and it was slipped inside a bag with a symbol on it. That seemed to snap him out of his zombie-state just a little, but he still felt a yearning unlike any other for what was inside of that bag. So although he wished to stop himself and question this man with the disappointingly unimpressive name further, he couldn't contain the force that was compelling him any longer. It was as though it had doubled in strength after he'd controlled it the first time, and it was forcing him out onto the sidewalk at a speed unsuitable for the inside of a shop.

He found himself spit out and half-stumbling under the summer sun, his bag clutched tight to his chest and a whirlwind of thoughts in his head. He turned around as soon as he could manage it and took a look at the shopfront. It was completely different. Now it was called Chachi's Tchotchkes, which made him wonder why all of the stores in town had such awful names.

"Riku!" Sora called, waving at him from the front of Colonel Custard. "I see you found what you were looking for inside Chachi's Tchotchkes."

The silver-haired boy rolled his eyes and walked towards his friend, still staring at the place where Symbol used to be.

"You didn't mention the pink door," he said as he approached the brunet, handing him what he'd gotten.

"Oh, I forgot about that," Sora said with a shrug, opening the bag. He let out a low whistle when he saw the contents. "Yours is pretty."

"I think you might have been right about those doors being portals," Riku said, snatching his precious back. "The way Jeff came out of it was like- I dunno. I wish I could have investigated more."

"Jeff? Seriously?"

"Yeah, and he told me pretty much nothing, which means we're back at square one."

"I wouldn't say that," Sora said with a grin, poking the book Riku was clutching onto. "I have something resembling a plan."

Riku didn't like the sound of that.

As it turned out, the brunet had invited Zexion to his house later that day, and wanted to call up some of their other friends to use as test subjects as well.

"I don't like the sound of this," Riku said, voicing his concerns.

"Yeah I could already see that on your face when I first mentioned it," Sora responded, rolling his eyes. "It's fine. Look, we need to see how the book effects other people. It's for science!"

"Since when have you ever cared about science?" Riku scoffed.

"Since all this crazy shit started happening, I guess." The brunet looked a little upset, which really drove Riku crazy. So he ended up apologizing and giving in to Sora. Probably only because of hormones and his crotch.

And this is how he ended up surrounded by a semi-circle of unconscious friends, unable to do anything but wait out the effects of what he'd been partially responsible for.

'Curse my crotch,' he thought, glancing at Sora again and wondering if a hug would be too far out of the ordinary. The brunet looked back at him and he felt guilty right away. There were more pressing matters at hand.

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Sora asked, his eyes sweeping the group again. "None of them are moving."

"They're breathing though, right?" Riku said. "I mean, they'll be okay, Sor, just give it a moment. Remember, we both passed out too."

Sora turned to him with an expression that said 'whoops,' and scratched at the back of his head, chewing his bottom lip.

Riku, while thinking it was quite cute and lovable, had the presence of mind to at least be concerned by what his expression meant. "What is it?"

"Uhh, I think we're going to have to call their parents." Sora cast his eyes to the ground. "I'm pretty sure they'll be asleep for the rest of the night."

The silver-haired boy realized what he'd missed then, and knew that Sora was right. They'd both slept all night after opening _Astrologia_, and it had been impossible to wake them, according to Sora's mother.

"Great," Riku grumbled, sighing and leaning back against the wall. "Gimme the phone, I guess. Let the fun begin."


	3. Sacrilege

**Warnings and Disclaimers:** Zodiac stuff. Little sprinkles of magic without any full-on commitment to the occult. A little bit of ghosty fun, augury, and completely useless and ridiculous "powers." Sex, drugs, and copious cursing. A great deal of bullshitting and lack of accuracy. Nonsense and self-indulgent drivel as per usual. I own none of the characters.

**Title:** Sacrilege by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

* * *

><p><strong>Sacrilege<strong>

"Thank god it's finally over," Riku sighed, falling to his side on the floor.

He'd gone through the scant phone book of their little burg for nearly an hour trying to find the phone numbers of his friends' homes. A surprisingly difficult task since he wasn't one hundred percent sure of all of their last names. It was half guess-work and half luck, in the end, but it worked out.

Really the more difficult task _should_ have been coming up with a reason that was both believable and reassuring for the parents. But as each phone call came and went, Riku started to realize that something was a little bit off about the adults in town. At least the ones he was contacting, anyway.

It wasn't just them though, it was Sora's parents, too. His mom had come down a few minutes after Riku had picked up the phone book and set down two glasses of lemonade without pause. Sora had become frantic, rattling off the beginnings of an explanation for the circumstances, but her only reaction to the situation was a slight hitch of her skirt as she stepped over Kairi. She'd even laughed and patted Sora on the head, moving back up the stairs without so much as a glance back. Sora had bolted after her with a pained expression, but Riku had been too busy to check on him and continued thumbing through the phone book instead.

It stood to reason that whatever they'd unleashed by using _Astrologia_ was having an affect not only on those directly involved, but also on their families. That thought was scary as hell.

'How far could it go?' Riku wondered, his eyes widening. 'What if distant relatives in other towns suddenly become surrounded by road Kraken or overrun by venomous rabbits and think nothing of it? What if it's so contagious that the whole world is suddenly plagued with _Twilight Zone_ type events and the adults all act like it's nothing?'

Riku shook his head. He couldn't start going down that train of thought. It would only lead to frustration and feelings of inadequacy. Instead he focused on what he could examine close at hand. So far, he knew with a fair amount of certainty that the adult family members of those exposed to _Astrologia_ were affected with a complete nonchalance towards the strange things happening around them. He suspected his own parents must be different too, judging from the evidence, but he hadn't noticed the change if there was one. It was disconcerting to think that he might go home and find his father milling about in front of a burning altar as if it were completely mundane. Or his mother flipping through endless looping channels of the same disturbing program with a contented smile. Of course, he was sure those specific things wouldn't happen; he'd already extinguished the burning altar and disposed of it properly, and the channels had rectified themselves after a day. But still, he was gripped with the overwhelming feeling that events like these would soon come to pass. He shuddered.

Now that he thought about it, not once had his mother or father brought up any of the events suddenly popping up in their town. Even more surprising, there were no rumors of strange things going on amongst the populace. There was not even a murmur of disquiet.

Riku felt like he might go mad if he thought about any of that too hard, so he sat up and tried to occupy his mind. And maybe it was the act of sitting up that flipped the switch once more, but as soon as he was upright he was inundated by the desire to open the book — his book. The one that he knew contained the path to his destiny.

He reached for it, unthinking. There was nothing more pleasant than the feeling of that soft leather under his fingertips. It was almost as if it melted right into his skin. He wondered if it might stain him with its inky blackness, not sure how such a deep color was possible. It was otherworldly. Breathtaking. He wanted to open it. Whatever was inside had to be 10 times — no — 100 times more beautiful, 100 times more captivating than its exterior.

Riku slid his fingers over the spine, not even sure at what moment in time he'd taken it completely in his hands, but not really concerned with it anyways. He just wanted to touch it and see what was inside. Nothing else was important.

"Riku!"

He snapped his head up, and found himself face-to-face with Sora. Too shocked to move or appreciate the ideal closeness of his friend, he began to process what must have happened.

"How long have you been calling me?" he murmured.

"I said your name at least 10 times and I was shaking you," the brunet said flippantly. "You seem just as into your new purchase as I am into mine."

Riku didn't say anything, just stared down at the book still clasped in his hands. He put it aside, wondering how Sora was coping with his desires so well. The brunet had become absorbed in his book, to be sure, but Riku knew that between the two of them, Sora was the impulsive, hedonistic one. There was no way he would ever stop burying himself in the pages of _Astrologia_ if the feelings were as strong as the ones Riku got when he held _Librum Dæmoniorum_.

He turned to his friend with a twinge in his chest, feeling uncertain about everything all over again. Not that the sensation that impending doom was watching them from all sides ever truly subsided, it just surged up with renewed vigor sometimes. This happened to be one of those times.

"I'm going to have an existential crisis soon," Riku grumbled, flopping back onto his side.

"I don't see what your existence has to do with anything," Sora scoffed back, nudging him with one socked foot. "But anyways, since we're already in a bit of a mess here, why don't you just pop that thing open. The title alone is tantalizing. I want to know what's inside."

Riku remained as he was — contemplating the vastness of the ever-expanding universe. Wondering if his actions were even worth their cost when life was such a meaningless void full of a constantly growing number of unexplainable phenomena.

"I don't want to open it," he said, wriggling himself closer to the other people laying on the floor. "I'll just become comatose instead. How about that?"

"Oh my god, Riku, what is up with you?" Sora said, sitting on Riku's side as he continued to wriggle.

"You've hindered my progress," Riku grumbled, taking advantage of the closeness of his friend anyways. He was certainly appreciative since it was rare indeed for a person's crush to sit right on top of them. It was almost enough to rouse him from his slug-state on the floor. Almost.

"You're looking at things through your mopey pessimist lens as usual," Sora sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "It's time for you to stand up and take this for what it is: the call of destiny. The start of a new era! All ushered in by us! How exciting is that?"

"But we're mere mortals," Riku said, turning and sitting up a bit. He was face-to-face with Sora again, which was nice. Also, the brunet wasn't budging from his position straddling Riku's hips, so things really couldn't get any better for a teenage boy in love. But then it got a little tricky. Sora wasn't exactly sitting all still and stoic, and his face was getting red at an alarming rate, too. It made Riku curious, and hopeful. Plus, it was so hot. They were both sweating, emitting heat, breathing hard. And they were so close. All of this was making a messy sex-drive stew, and Riku was slurping it up. 'I'll have to adopt a new mantra to get through this,' he thought, fighting the urge to touch Sora's hip. 'Please don't pop a boner please don't pop a boner please don't pop a boner.'

"Tha- that's not important, Riku," Sora mumbled, cutting through the internal mantra chanting. "We should use what we've received. Why else would these things have been given to us?"

"They could be- I dunno. Maybe it's a trick by some being trying to mess with the Earth." Riku licked his lips. He wanted to groan when Sora mirrored the action. 'Stop doing that,' he thought, resuming his internal chanting once more.

"But Riku-" and there he was, doing stupid cute things again. He licked his lips again, and the way he was leaning forward… 'Don't put your hands on my chest, stop.' Riku tried to direct his gaze over Sora's shoulder but all he saw was the brunet's ass sticking out. The way he was arching his back _had_ to be on purpose goddammit. "-we won't know unless we go for it."

"G-go for what?" Riku stammered, losing track of the conversation topic as he fought a very real internal war for self-control. "I mean, yes. You're right. We'd better go for it."

Sora paused in confusion, giving Riku a moment to collect himself. He stared at the brunet and gulped, trying not to find his knitted brow cute. 'Why is he still sitting on me? What kind of straight boy does this? Just dismount already!' But it was too late. His undoing came as the word mount entered his thought-sphere. All he had to do was accidentally picture Sora mounting him in a different sense and there it was. His crotch soon displayed its crown jewel, just swelling with pride. 'Oh shit,' Riku thought desperately, 'my ulterior motives are showing!'

Before he could think of another solution, he shoved Sora off, sending him to join the rest of his friends on the floor.

"Gotta pee!" he said a little too loudly, bolting up the stairs. He stowed away in the bathroom the minute he'd reached the landing, hoping the stupid thing would go down on its own. 'I am so not jerking off in my best friend's downstairs bathroom. His family uses this… ah! Family. That's a good way to go.' He spent the next few seconds bombarding himself with images of his recently dead grandmother, and before he knew it the accursed boner was vanquished, allowing him to head back downstairs to make up an explanation for Sora.

He found his friend sitting cross-legged on the floor, rubbing his head in confusion or pain. He wasn't sure which.

"Uh, sorry," Riku said, helping him stand. "I drank too much lemonade."

Sora didn't seem too bothered either way, which was a relief. However, it did plop them right back into the spot they'd left off in their argument. An argument which Riku felt himself losing.

"You already said you agreed," Sora pointed out, unaware that the battle had been won through sex appeal.

"No, you're right, I said that, but I didn't mean it. I was confused."

"Yeah right, asshole, you're just trying to backtrack."

"Sora, you can't blame me for having a few reservations about popping open a book that literally has the latin word 'demons' in its title."

"Oh," the brunet said, grinning, "so that's what it means?"

"Please tell me that's a joke." Riku stared, his eyes full of incredulity. "What else could dæmoniorum mean?"

Sora pouted. "Maybe I just didn't think about it much, okay? Don't give me so much shit all the time."

"Okay, I'm gonna breeze right past that and tell you again that I don't think it's a good idea to use these things. And it's not even just because the word 'demons' is in the title of mine. There's also the fact that messing with yours has knocked out a total of 7 people including you and me. Plus, whatever feelings are drawing me to the book I got are even stronger, and that definitely spells disaster."

"Hold up. How exactly would you know that the feelings drawing you in are stronger? You have no idea how strong mine are."

"I'm basing it on how often you use the book," Riku said, hoping Sora wouldn't get all competitive on him.

"Okay, but you have no way of testing it sooooooo."

'Here we go,' Riku thought, nearly rolling his eyes.

"Alright, let me just put it this way," he sighed, "if I was as willing to use _Librum Dæmoniorum _as you, I would have opened it the minute I received it. And I can guarantee I wouldn't have put it down for anything. Not even you."

Sora stared at him for a moment, looking like he didn't believe that. He seemed to decide not to fight that battle any longer, and shrugged, patting Riku on the shoulder. "It's a good thing you're not as whimsical as me."

Riku laughed. "I don't know if I'd call it whimsical so much as reckless."

"Whatever, let's move past it," Sora said, grinning. "The more important topic is me convincing you to open that super cool demon book."

"You're not giving up on this are you."

"Nope."

After about half an hour of sitting in the basement debating while surrounded by a semi-circle of their unconscious peers, Sora and Riku started to find it creepy that there were a bunch of half-dead people around them and headed upstairs, still bantering on their way.

"Look, let's say I do open it," Riku said, sitting at the foot of Sora's bed, "what if I unleash demon-related stuff on the town? How could that be good under any sort of circumstances?"

"You don't even know anything about real demons, so how can you say it would be bad for sure?"

"While it's true that I don't know what real life demons are all about, I highly doubt it's anything good since all of the lore about them says 'demon equals bad' in no uncertain terms."

"But you don't _know_ that," Sora grumbled. "And I still posit that there was a good reason for us receiving these things."

"But that's the thing Sora, what if it wasn't fate? What if it was simply chance? Or worse, sabotage?" Riku closed his eyes and stretched his neck, tired of arguing. "I mean, ultimately the crux of all of your arguments is 'how do you know unless you try,' and uncertainty is not a basis for experimentation when so much is at stake."

"Ugh! You're such a wet blanket sometimes," the brunet whined, sitting next to Riku with a sigh. "If you won't open it how are we supposed to know what the future holds?"

"There's still a future even if I don't open it Sor," Riku chuckled. "Probably a much more happy and demon-free future."

There was a momentary lull as Sora leaned against him and sighed again, evoking more emotions in his friend than he could have known. Riku made sure he didn't do anything weird out of reflex, focusing on that rather than the sensation of Sora's cheek on his bare shoulder.

"Hey, Riku?" the brunet murmured, breaking the silence.

"What is i-? God dammit, Sora!"

The brunet, while looking proud as a peacock, sat holding _Librum Dæmoniorum _open to page one, thrusting it towards Riku's face.

"YESSSSS!" he cried, pushing it closer. "Can't you hear it calling for you!?"

The answer was yes, he could. Riku was already lost, and there was nothing left but the book. The first page was just as beautiful as he'd expected. He touched its vellumy surface with a shudder and pulled the book from Sora's hands, pushing the brunet's face away with a detached shove. He vaguely registered the sound of his friend protesting about it at his side, but he was too far gone to really listen, focusing instead on flipping slowly to the next page.

It was all in Latin, but that didn't matter. Riku knew exactly what it said. He couldn't say why, and if asked to read the exact words aloud he'd have no clue what to say, but he could distinctly make out the meaning of every single sentence. And it was enthralling.

Before he knew it, he was chattering away about the first topic: classification of demons.

"It says here that there are dozens of different classifications, but this one here is based on birth month. Look, yours is Moloch."

"What does that mean?" Sora said, poking the page. "Also, how are you reading this?"

Riku ignored the second question and started talking about Moloch without skipping a beat. "Let's see. I don't know what all of this means in depth, but on the surface it says that he was an Ammonite god. Says a bunch of stuff about fire. Apparently Solomon built a temple to him. There's some phrase here about child sacrifice and the words 'to pass through fire.' So I guess it could mean various things, but it has something to do with fire."

Before Sora could interrupt his reading anymore, he pointed out his own birth month and corresponding demon. "Belial - chief of all devils. Blah blah blah, leader of the sons of darkness, wealth, pollution of sanctuary, and extreme proficiency at-"

"What?" Sora asked, bouncing up and down. Riku felt him crowding in to read over his shoulder and closed the book a bit, lucid enough to feel embarrassment again.

"Quit it."

"Tell me what it is Riku!"

Sora yanked the book open and moved even closer. Before the brunet could pick out the word he'd paused on, Riku flipped the page and kept reading silently, his ears going red.

'Why am I even worried? Sora doesn't know Latin.'

However, he was starting to regain control of himself, and he was just composed enough to notice his friend snickering at his side. 'Great.'

"Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want."

"It says you're really good at sex! That's what it says!"

"No, you fucking clown car, it says _Belial_ is really good at sex!"

"Yeah, but Belial corresponds with your birth month right." Sora waggled his eyebrows. "That probably means you've got super sex powers. Or maybe some of that other stuff. What was it? Pollution or wealth or whatever... But it would be funniest if it was the sex thing."

Riku rolled his eyes and let himself get lost in the content again, flipping back to the previous page since the secret was already out.

"Yeah, okay so it says Belial is-"

"Really good at sex!"

"Are you five fucking years old!?"

Sora cackled and kicked his feet up in the air, proving that, yes, indeed he was.

"It says 'fornicatio.' You have to admit that's funny, Riku."

Riku sighed and shook his head. "Anyways," he mumbled, "that's pretty much all it says about him. I wonder about everyone else."

"Ooh! I'll go get their horoscope info."

Before Riku could protest, the brunet was out the door, probably prying crumpled pages from the fists of their unconscious friends in the basement. He wasn't sure it was such a good idea to involve them in another form of, uh, magic, or whatever, but he also couldn't deny how much he yearned for the information inside of the book in his hands. And more than that, he felt the desire to use it on others. That should have been of some concern, but Riku was too busy sopping up demon knowledge to give much of a damn.

Thus, when Sora returned with the astrology junk they'd done earlier, he got right to work, reading and writing all about the different demons and the powers they might confer.

"I wonder what all of this is gonna bring about," Sora said, flipping through _Astrologia_ at Riku's side. "I mean, we won't have any idea unless we test it, but it's so vague. Like, what am I supposed to do with fire? How am I supposed to see what cool new thing I can do?"

"I 'unno."

Sora snickered at his side. "I guess you could work your way up to testing your sex skills after desecrating a church and robbing a bank."

Riku would have rolled his eyes, but they were quite suddenly and inexplicably drawn to Sora instead.

"How about I just test it now on you?" he breathed, not sure where the words were coming from. Some part of him wanted to slap a hand over his mouth and explain away what he'd just said, but the other, more dominant part was telling him to push Sora down and make good on several hundred fantasies.

With a final snap, he shut _Librum Dæmoniorum _and set it down, turning to Sora. The look in his friend's eyes made him come to his senses for just a second, but it wasn't long enough. There was a force inside of him driving him forward, and it didn't matter to that force that the brunet looked so shocked.

Strangely, he didn't receive any resistance as he pressed Sora down on the floor, their bodies flush together. It probably wouldn't have changed the outcome anyways, but it made the real Riku feel a bit better. Before he could stop himself (or whatever had taken control), he was kissing the boy he loved. Not a chaste, sweet little kiss either. This was a full-blown, open-mouthed, carnal, sloppy, wet kiss. And as much as Riku had always wanted to do this to Sora, it didn't feel right when he wasn't really in control. Plus, he wasn't sure if Sora was consenting or just tolerating it.

As luck would have it, there would be no answer to either of these questions. At least not right away. Instead of asking, Riku continued to delve into Sora, pushing his hips down and grinding steadily. Sora gasped but still didn't struggle, instead making little noises against Riku's tongue. But just as he was getting to groping under Sora's shirt, a strange, unnatural cacophany filled the air. The sound of beating wings and ominous rumbling overtook everything else. And with unfortunate timing, darkness fell on both Riku and Sora, holding them under with an unearthly grip.

* * *

><p><strong>End Notes:<strong> LoL, I don't know Latin, bye.


End file.
